Combination toy vehicle and holding means therefor

ABSTRACT

A COMBINATION TOY VEHICLE AND MEANS FOR SUSPENDING THE VEHICLE FROM A BELT OR HAT OR THE LIKE, SAID VEHICLE HAVING A PAIR OF APERTURES ON THE UNDERSIDE THEREOF AND SAID MEANS COMPRISING AN ELONGATED HANGER STRAP OF THE FLEXIBLE MATERIAL HAVING A CLIP AT ONE END FOR ATTACHMENT TO THE BELT AND A PAIR OF SPACED STUDS NEAR THE OTHER END FOR INSERTION ONE INTO EACH OF SAID APERTURES ON THE VEHICLE. THE STUDS HAVE RESILIENTLY DEFORMABLE HEADS WHICH COMPRESS AS THEY PASS THROUGH THE APERTURES.

Nov. 2, 1971 F AmcKE 3,616,571

'IIIII IIIII CECIL F AD/CKES I I 20 F253 5 INVENTOR. I I

United States Patent 3,616,571 COMBINATION TOY VEHICLE AND HOLDING MEANSTHEREFOR Cecil F. Adickes, Playa del Rey, Califl, assignor to TonkaCorporation, Mound, Minn. Filed Feb. 11, 1970, Ser. No. 10,402 Int. Cl.A63h 11/10 US. Cl. 46-202 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Acombination toy vehicle and means for suspending the vehicle from a beltor hat or the like, said vehicle having a pair of apertures on theunderside thereof and said means comprising an elongated hanger strap offlexible material having a clip at one end for attachment to the beltand a pair of spaced studs near the other end for insertion one intoeach of said apertures on the vehicle. The studs have resilientlydeformable heads which compress as they pass through the apertures.

It is becoming increasingly more common for young children to possessand play with sets of small vehicular toys each in the size range of oneto three inches in length.

It is an object of this invention to provide a novel combination-of asmall toy vehicle and a holding means therefor which will enable a childto carry and have available for immediate and convenient use a greatmany of such vehicles.

The above mentioned and other objects of the invention will be broughtto light during the course of the following specification, referencebeing made to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of the hanger strap shown clipped to a beltand with the mounted position of a toy vehicle shown in broken lines.

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the hanger strap.

FIG. 3 is a vertical section through the hanger strap taken on line 3-3of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a bottom end view of the strap.

FIG. 5 is a horizontal section through the strap taken on line 55 ofFIG. 1 and showing a toy vehicle partially broken away in mountedposition thereon.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing reference characters willbe used to denote like parts or structural features in the differentviews. The hanger member is denoted generally at and comprises anelongated strap of semirigid resilient deformable material such asplastic. The strap has a name plate 11 formed on its upper end facingforwardly to prominently display a name or trademark. Below the nameplate 1 the strap has a clip 12 punched from the central portion thereofto extend downwardly in slightly spaced relation behind the plane of thestrap. The clip opens downwardly enabling a belt 14 to be received insupporting position between the clip and strap.

The lower portion of the hanger member 10 is molded so as to have amounting box 15 extending across the "ice front of the hanger. A pair ofcylindrical studs 16 project forwardly from box 15 in transverselyspaced relation and are interconnected by a rib 17. Studs 16 areprovided near their extended ends with small inwardly pointing teeth 18.

A miniature toy vehicle denoted generally at 20 has a body 21 with abottom pan 22 extending along the underside thereof and fourconventionally spaced ground wheels 24. The pan 22 has a pair ofapertures 25 spaced longitudinally of the vehicle, midway between thewheels and the same distance apart as studs 16. Each aperture 25 islarger than the width of a stud 16 but slightly smaller than thecombined dimension of the stud and its tooth 18. Accordingly, thevehicle 20 may be detachably connected to hanger member 10 by insertingthe studs 16 into apertures 25 as shown in FIG. 5. Teeth 25 will deformslightly as they pass through the apertures and then will resilientlyreturn to their extended positions to frictionally secure the vehicle onthe hanger until removal pulling force is applied thereto.

Strap 10 is preferably provided with a groove 27 extending across itslongtiudinal center to form a hinge allowing the lower portion of thestrap to be bent upwardly for mounting or dismounting the vehicle. Themounting box 15 is provided so that studs 16 are olfset sufliciently toprohibit interference of vehicle wheels with the strap.

It will be understood that a child may with the combination describedcarry several hanger straps 10 on a belt or other article of clothingwith each strap mounting a different type of miniature vehicle for hisselective use. The invention accordingly carries out the aforementionedobjective.

Having now therefore fully illustrated and described my invention, whatI claim to be new and desire to protect by United States Letters Patentis:

1. A combination toy vehicle and holding means therefor comprising a toyvehicle having a pair of spaced apertures in its underside, anda hangerstrap having a clip at one end for attachment to a belt or the like anda pair of studs projecting outwardly in parallelism from the other endand equally spaced with said vehicle apertures for frictional insertioninto the apertures to provide a detachable connection between the strapand vehicle.

2. The subject matter of claim 1 wherein the hanger strap and the clipand studs thereon are formed of a unitary piece of resilient deformablematerial.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 660,302 10/1900 Lowman 2242 D2,910,804 11/1959 \Vhite 224-2 C FOREIGN PATENTS 252,930 6/1912 Germany224-5 GERALD M. FORLENZA, Primary Examiner L. J. ORESKY, AssistantExaminer US. 01. X.R. 248-316 R; 224-25 R

